


wherefore and to cannot be told

by intelcore



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, a slight au where Reyna goes to Hylla instead of joining the Hunt, another fic where people talk by yours truly, tw: patricide mention but not as much as you’d expect honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26165206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intelcore/pseuds/intelcore
Summary: After Jason’s death, some part of her brain had played the memory of an arrow snatched in mid air, on repeat, some dream that served no purpose but to haunt. Giant, arrow, sister. A stifled scream that had broken her heart even before Reyna could see Hylla snatch Orion’s arrow mid-flight. Sometimes it was Jason, and the arrow met its mark and Reyna screamed. Sometimes it was Hylla and it didn’t, and Reyna‘s scream caught in her throat.Thalia had shown up, eyes full of mourning and muted anger and so much of missed time. Hazel had been voted praetor and the first thing she’d done was Iris-Message Nico, like she’d been trying each day since the battle. Artemis had shown up, because she could, she finally could, because sisters showed up when they could.So Reyna had packed a toothbrush and a change of clothes into her backpack, and taken the first flight to Seattle. Because she was a sister, because she could.This is how it happens: she steps outside the boundary of Camp Jupiter, draws herself up to her full height and with a borrowed phone and her sister’s credit card number, books a plane ticket to Seattle.Reyna and Hylla talk.
Relationships: Hylla Ramírez-Arellano & Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Comments: 10
Kudos: 33





	wherefore and to cannot be told

**Author's Note:**

> i just make people have weird conversations, that’s all my fics are, but it’s ok cause honestly! should talk more!
> 
> anyway let’s take a minute to imagine an au where Reyna doesn’t join the hunt but still leaves New Rome. Instead she gets to visit Hylla, and also talks out somethings and feel feelings. That’s this fic. Title’s from Some Day Soon by Alexi Murdoch, decidedly not a Reyna song, but title fits so here it is!
> 
> hmm. I, like, pick and choose from both canon and my memory so...details are optional I guess

Her sister at least waited until Reyna was settled in with a steaming mug of hot chocolate before she began with her questions. This was ideal, because the scalding sweetness of the drink gave her a reason to not answer any of them.

“I’m just saying,” Hylla said, holding up a box of Cheerios to scrutinise the expiry date. “I’m glad you decided to drop by, I really am, but I’m just saying you could have  _ called _ ahead, you know? Let me get ready, get the place nice and tidy.”

Reyna smiled at her diplomatically. “The place is tidy enough.”

Hylla sighed. She didn’t put down the cereal box as she shoved around some trashy thrillers and scrunched up bills that had started to pile up on the kitchen counter. The ring of Bellona, one half of a matching set that Reyna also wore, glinted on her finger. “You don’t have to spare my feelings,” she said, turning the box over to read the ingredients. “All you had to do was  _ call _ . So you wouldn’t have had to in the first place. Spare my feelings.”

“You should just get rid of that,” Reyna said, over her mug. “If you’re so unsure about whether that thing has gone bad, maybe you shouldn’t take chances.”

“It’s my last box of cereal,” Hylla complained. “I don’t like making late night grocery runs.”

“Good thing you have a multibillion dollar delivery company at your disposal then.”

Hylla made a face. “You  _ know _ that we’re phasing ourselves out of the blasted company. I wrote about it to you in my letters.”

“I haven’t been getting the letters for the past few months,” Reyna said. That was probably the faint silver lining of the communication break down—Reyna loves her sister’s letters, she really did, but they always devolved by page ten of her novel length correspondence. Many trees had lost their lives to Hylla’s letters. “Not since communications went down.”

“So, that was why you weren’t writing back.” Hylla finally threw the cereal box into the trash bin. “I thought you were just super busy with your Praetor business. Speaking of, how’s that been? I’m just glad you finally have a co-Praetor now. Frank, was it? The son of Mars? You were always going on about how busy you are, and how you  _ absolutely _ can’t get away for the weekend to visit...I’m glad things have settled down for you.”

Well. Band-aid. “I’ll be able to visit you way more often now,” Reyna started, slowly. Peeling back gently centimetre by centimetre.

If possible, Hylla’s grin grew wider. “About time really—“

“I’m no longer Praetor,” Reyna blurted out. Ripped off. 

Hylla’s grin froze on her face. “Oh.” She blinked. “ _ Oh _ . Oh, shit. Did something happen—?”

“I’m not a centurion either. Or even a legionnaire.” Reyna bit her lip. “Gods, I don’t even know if I count as a New Rome citizen now. It’s not like we have passports or official identification separate from the state of California or anything, which, I mean, why  _ don’t _ we have? But l guess all Roman demigods and legacies are automatically members of New Rome—“

“Woah, back up.” Hylla shook her head and sat down heavily on the kitchen counter chair opposite Reyna. “You’re no longer Praetor? When did that happen?”

“Just now. It was my choice. I stepped down,” Reyna said. She tried to keep her voice cool and matter of fact, but something in her sister’s concerned gaze made her feel less sure about the decision than forty-eight hours ago, when she had still been reeling from her wounded leg and the post battle destruction of Camp Jupiter but also high with the euphoria of victory and finally, after weeks, the feeling of peace from her legionnaires. She had felt such picture perfect clarity then. Now, not so much. “I made it official to the Legion and Lupa yesterday.”

This is how it had happened: she had made the announcement in the Town Hall, smiled a lot, shook hands with everybody and hugged her friends goodbye and good luck, promising to keep in touch. She packed a bag, got Aurum and Argentum ready. Then she had stepped outside the boundary of Camp Jupiter, drawn herself up to her full height and with a borrowed phone and her sister’s credit card number, booked a plane ticket to Seattle.

She had arrived at her sister’s new apartment half an hour ago, in the bristling rain, with her dogs, and only a single change of clothes and a five month old letter with the address packed into her backpack.

Oh gods. She could see why her sister looked so concerned.

“I’d actually been thinking about it for a while—“ Reyna started.

Hylla raised a hand and shook her head. “You...stepped down?”

Reyna nodded. She stared into her hot chocolate with its soggy marshmallows. It was still raining outside—the sky was gray and the clouds black. So different from how the sky—blue, bright, clear—in San Francisco had looked before she’d left. Aurum and Argentum were chasing each other around the house, already knocking Hylla’s table lamp of the drawer in her room. “Yeah. I’d actually been thinking about it for a while. Weeks. Uh, months maybe. I kept putting it off. But then some stuff happened and some people said some things that made me think more clearly...I just decided to do it. No point in being something or doing something just because people tell you that’s what you are, right?”

“All I heard was a lot of  _ somethings _ ,” Hylla said, gently. “Use your words, Reyna.”

Reyna sighed and closed her eyes. She let her head thunk lightly against the kitchen island. “Do you know Apollo came to New Rome?”

“Like the god?”

Reyna rolled her eyes. “Of course the god. Do you know any other Apollos?”

“To be fair, I don’t really know this one either. I’m not very sure how  _ you _ know him.” Hylla popped one of Reyna’s marshmallows into her mouth. “I thought communications were down and the gods weren’t showing their faces lately. Why did Apollo drop by?”

“Well, it was more like he was dragged.” Reyna swatted her sister’s hand away when she reached for another marshmallow. “Er, led? Let’s go with led. He’s mortal now, for the time being.  _ Hopefully _ , the time being. He’s on this quest to regain the oracles and vanquish these Roman emperors who’ve returned from the dead—“

“I did hear about  _ that _ ,” Hylla acknowledged. “I thought they were left overs from the Doors of Death reopening, though. I wrote asking about them in my letters—which you probably didn’t get due to the—“

“Communication failure,” Reyna agreed. “Which was linked to this emperor business in the first place. I was the one who had to go on the quest, along with Apollo and this twelve year old named Meg.”

”Dream team, I’m sure.”

“Meg was the asset honestly,” Reyna said. “She’s crazy talented with her swords.”

“Swords? Plural?”

“Oh, yes.”

Hylla squinted at her. “Still doesn’t explain you abandoning your praetorship and taking the first flight out to Seattle.” Hylla tried to smile winningly but it was clear to Reyna that she was uneasy. “Look, you’re a smart kid. You don’t do things without thinking them through. But...I don’t get it, Reyna. I don’t—you don’t just pack up and leave. That’s not you.”

Reyna twisted her fingers together. Tiny white scars ran criss-crossed along her palms, the places where a sword hilt would fit. “You haven’t really known me for awhile.” She snapped her head up when Hylla began to say something. “I don’t mean anything by it, Hylla. It’s just the truth. The past five years...we met each other a grand total of  _ two _ times.”

“That’s because you stayed in Camp Jupiter for all five of them,” Hylla said, voice hard. “You worked yourself up from a newbie to a centurion to  _ Praetor _ . You sailed across the Ancient Lands by yourself. You transported the Athena Parthenos to the Greek camp with some scraggly companions. We didn’t meet each other because I chose the Amazons and you chose  _ New Rome _ . And after the war, after all you had to go through to get to where you did, one small weekend quest later you decide to just quit cold turkey? Forgive me, Reyna, but I can firmly say:  _ that’s not you _ .”

“I didn’t quit,” Reyna said, and she had to work to keep the venom out of her words. “I did give this thought. Lots of thought.”

Hylla shook her head. “Then let’s hear it. Let’s hear this elaborate train of thought.”

“I felt like quitting, so I decided to quit.” 

Reyna stood up quickly and took a last, large gulp of her hot chocolate. She ignored Hylla’s offended little “Reyna!” and walked towards the enormous window in the living room. Her older sister had invested in a couple of potted plants, a haphazard collection of beans and money plants and geranium and—sweet Pluto, a  _ cactus _ ? What had happened to her sister?

It wasn’t even wholly unexpected of Hylla to start tending houseplants, or welcome guests with mugs of hot chocolate, or buy out a nice studio apartment in one of America’s most expensive cities, if Reyna was being honest. They’d spent two years on Circe’s island after all, playing attendant to the sorceress. Hylla had been the star protégée, the favourite of the goddess. She’d enjoyed it, had looked freer, happier than Reyna could ever remember her being before or since. She’d mixed smoothies, learnt the difference between a facial and a deep cleanse, even taken care of a couple of pet leopards. Hylla had acquired an appreciation for the “calm, soothing kind of life” as she had put so eloquently.

Then she had almost single-handedly fought off a crew of pirates, won their freedom and ran off to become the Queen of the Amazons, all within the span of a quick few months.

Of course Apollo thought Reyna had an impressive resume. He hadn’t met her sister.

A hand fell on Reyna’s shoulder. “Reyna, you can’t deflect.  _ You _ came to  _ me _ . I deserve answers about why my baby sister is abandoning her post and flying all the way to Seattle to see me.”

“I can leave if you want.” Reyna  _ tried _ to inject some venom into her words this time, but gods, she just felt tired. So bone-chillingly tired. 

Hylla’s expression was severe. “Don’t deflect,” she repeated. “We can talk like two adults—or, I guess, an adult and a very mature teenager.” Hylla raised an eyebrow. “If that still applies. Are you still a mature teenager, or have you given up that role as well?”

Reyna rolled her eyes. Hylla squeezed her shoulder one last time before letting go and walking over to her bright red monstrosity of a sofa and seating herself on the arm of it. “Reyna, I do know a thing or two about needing to get a switch up. Gods know we’ve both had our share of it. And this isn’t about me supporting you— _of_ _course_ I support you. You’re my baby sister. I think you are a very capable, intelligent lady. Enterprising enough to lead a Legion into battle and also lead in peace time. But I’m allowed to ask the questions. I _deserve_ to ask the questions. I deserve to know your reasons.”

There was a thin white scar that ran the length of Hylla’s forehead. A mark of pride, a mark of victory. She’d got it from the pirates, the third time she’d managed to reinvent herself. She’d been only a little older than Reyna was now. Eighteen and she’d already gone from scared, protective older sister to the charming, smiling chief attendant of C.C Spa and Resort to the fearsome, warrior daughter of Bellona. To fearsome, warrior queen of the Amazons.

She looked different from both the times Reyna had seen her in the last five years—once during the quest to deliver the Athena Parthenos, and the next during a brief visit after the Giant War, when they hadn’t spoken much but Hylla had grabbed her in a hug, kissed her forehead and not let go for a long, long time. She looked relaxed here, in rainy Seattle, in her nice apartment with the cutesy brightly coloured succulent pots; _ at home _ . She wasn’t wearing her black vest and Amazon girdle, instead having on a pair of jeans and an oversized T-shirt. Her hair, usually done up in an elaborate braid, hung loose around her shoulders. 

Underneath all of it though, Reyna could recognise her sister’s tumultuous concern, her guard going up. Despite everything, despite all the reinventions, some part of her Hylla would always be reserved for the sixteen year old scared, protective older sister she’d once been. 

Reyna felt tears press hot against her eyelids. Some part of  _ her _ would always be the scared, younger sister who thought Hylla hung the moon. No matter how many battles she won or how skilled as a Praetor she had been. No matter how old she got, or how many places she left behind.

Reyna understood suddenly why she’d decided to come to her sister. She had wanted for once, something constant. Some part of her that had stayed the same.

“I don’t know if it’s good enough, my reasons,” Reyna said. “I thought—I really thought it was. I did. But I’m not so sure now, so far away from camp. With everything that happened—the battle with Caligula a few weeks ago. The battle day before yesterday. With just the past...the past year. The past four, five, six years. With  _ Jason— _ “

Hylla’s dark eyes narrowed. “Wait—what happened to Jason?”

Twelve, and far away from home, far away from her sister, Reyna had met a boy at a secret city, and for the next four years, there had been some part of her that was used to being a sister, used to being with Hylla, that had been kept warm. Not completely, and not exactly, different in a familiar way. And that boy had been taken, and made to forget, and made to change, and that place had been empty for a while, cold as loss. He had come back, and it had been different. But he had come back.

And then he was gone.

This time, Reyna even  _ had _ people—Hazel and Nico, Frank and the legion. Annabeth and Percy and Piper and Leo, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, Bombilo and Terminus and Julia and Leila and Thalia and Lavinia. But it was hard to focus on that—it was hard to focus on who she had, when it all seemed so easily snatched away. People lost children, and mothers, and fathers, peace and godhoods and second chances and childhoods and siblings and best friends.

After Jason’s death, some part of her brain had played the memory of an arrow snatched in mid air, on repeat, some dream that served no purpose but to haunt. Giant, arrow, sister. A stifled scream that had broken her heart even before Reyna could see Hylla snatch Orion’s arrow mid-flight. Sometimes it was Jason, and the arrow met its mark and Reyna screamed. Sometimes it was Hylla and it didn’t, and Reyna‘s scream caught in her throat.

Thalia had shown up, eyes full of mourning and muted anger and so much of missed time. Hazel had been voted praetor and the first thing she’d done was Iris-Message Nico, like she’d been trying each day since the battle. Artemis had shown up, because she could, she finally could, because sisters showed up when they could.

So Reyna had packed a toothbrush and a change of clothes into her backpack, and taken the first flight to Seattle. Because she was a sister, because she could.

Reyna told her sister everything.

  
  


//

  
  


At the end of it, Reyna felt the pain, the stress, the grief of the past few weeks, the past few  _ years  _ that had built up behind her eyes, her throat, get released at long last. Halfway through it, the tears had begun and Hylla and her had moved to the sofa, and Reyna was tucked into her sister’s side, warm and safe in a way she hadn’t felt in the longest of time.

“I’m glad you decided to come here,” Hylla said, after a little while. She was running a hand through Reyna’s hair, slowly combing out the knots and tangles with her fingers. “I can’t imagine. I’m so sorry to hear about Jason and your camp. I’m just...I’m just thankful you decided to come here. That you felt safe enough to come here.”

Reyna felt to raw to speak, so she just nodded. Hylla’s fingers gently rubbed the small bald patch where the raven had plucked a bunch of her hair. Hylla didn’t say anything, and she even smiled, but her older sister’s expression was as fraught as glass.

“I wish that I could have protected you better,” Hylla said. 

“You couldn’t have done anything,” Reyna said. “When you had to, you did a great job at it. You protected me when there was a need to. When it was actually your responsibility.”

Hylla pursed her lips. “It’s always my responsibility, Reyna.”

“I didn’t tell you all this so  _ you _ could feel sad.”

“No, you didn’t,” Hylla agreed. She tugged her closer, held her tighter. They didn’t speak, Hylla’s fingers deft as they braided and re-braided Reyna’s hair.

“I like your cactus plant,” Reyna said at last, because the silence was overwhelming. “And the money plant pots. Very...you know.”

Hylla snorted. “Such a ringing endorsement.”

“Oh, it’s not an  _ endorsement _ . I’m not encouraging your weird succulent obsession. I just think what you’ve got so far is cute.”

“Ve likes it,” Hylla said. She tucked a piece of Reyna’s hair over the bald patch. “You know, I thought this was a stress response. I didn’t know you got attacked by a  _ bird _ . I mean, of all things.”

“It was a very huge bird with razor claws if it makes you feel better.”

“Funnily enough, it doesn’t.” Conversationally, so casually, that Reyna almost missed the tremor in her voice, Hylla added, “I shouldn’t have left you alone after the island. I should have come with you to the Camp. Instead of running off to join the Amazons.”

Reyna frowned. “You love being an Amazon. You love the Amazons. You’re their  _ queen _ .”

“I do,” Hylla said. “I am.”

“Look, you can’t get all weepy on me about not protecting me or anything,” Reyna said, turning to look at her sister in the eye. “You protected me from him. From what you could. We made our choices. They were good choices, for what it’s worth. And maybe we—I—want different things now, but that doesn’t mean...it doesn’t mean it wasn’t good when it lasted.”

Hylla looked weepy anyway. Her sister didn’t cry often, and she wasn’t now, but something was unspooling in her expression all the same. “I know,” Hylla said. “You’ve always been brave. Done what was needed to be done. But it seems we’ve had more losses this way, doesn’t it? You with your camp and the emperors. Me with my…my girls. My poor girls. Kinzie and Sasha and Theresa. I do wonder if there was another choice then. I know we made those choices in difficult times, in difficult circumstances. But I do wonder if there was a way to minimise the losses. Cut them.”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” Reyna said. “I don’t regret my choices. I don’t Hylla. And you can’t, you  _ can’t _ regret your choice when you’re still the  _ Queen of the Amazons _ .”

Hylla’s fingers faltered. “I...know.” Hylla swallowed. “I know. I just...wonder, sometimes, that’s all.”

“That’s risky business.”

“I know,” Hylla said again. “I can’t help it. It is good though. We’re rebuilding. It’s...hard, but good. We’re good.”

“You said you moved out of the Amazon headquarters?” 

“Yeah, we’re distancing ourselves from that company. Going more traditional. Still with the fancy gadgets and stuff, but since we’re in rebuilding stages, we’re switching up and trying out new things. You should come check out the new place, we meet up on weekends and most Tuesdays. Most of the girls live in their own apartments, but some of them room in the HQ.” Hylla sighed. “You know, since you’re technically out of a “job”—“

“I’m not joining your all-girls super squad, Hylla. I don’t want to be bossed around by my own sister. I didn’t come all the way here to relieve ages ten to twelve, thanks,” Reyna deadpanned. “I actually thought of joining the Hunters. They, uh, offered, actually.”

“Oh, okay.” Hylla raised her eyebrows. “Going around shooting stuff for the rest of time. I can see you doing that.”

“I refused,” Reyna said. “It was too soon to pledge myself to something else. I thought about it, and of course the option is still open, and it’s also—it’s so much  _ time _ you get, time you’d kill for, but its an eternity of never changing. I don’t think I could do that. It might have been what I needed, some permanency, but to live so long and hardly change...” She shook her head. “A formerly godly friend of mine learned that lesson recently. The hard way.” 

There was also the fact Hunters reminded her too much of San Juan and killing fathers and haunted homes and quests that had them circling the globe, of anger and betrayal and a lot of loss. 

Also, Thalia Grace looked too much like her brother. She reminded Reyna too much of her own older sister, weary beyond years, some part of her always sad and sixteen. Time ticked slowly in Thalia’s presence, slipped slowly as melted gold, someone who had withstood too much of lost time and lost friends and lost chances. No wonder  _ she _ had chosen the hunt. If Reyna had missed so much of her own life she’d want to have more time too. Another chance. Just in case. 

“Who’s praetor now?”

“Hazel.”

“The girl who trained Arion?” Hylla nodded approvingly. “She will do well.”

This was something Reyna could agree with. “Yeah. She will.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Hylla finished braiding up the last portion of Reyna’s hair and leant back to admire her work. “Just staying here with me? Taking a breather?”

“I don’t know. The Hunters are still offering. New York’s nice, this time of year. I know since I visited last year. Maybe I’ll bite the bullet and join your weird girl gang. ” Reyna said. “And...and Camp Jupiter, New Rome...it’s still home. But for now? Yeah.”

Hylla nodded, getting up at last, to put away the hot chocolate glasses in the sink. “Fair. There’s always room for you here. It’s going to be fine.”

Reyna believed her. Her sister had never lied while saying those words. Not in Puerto Rico, not on Circe’s island, not aboard the pirate ship, not on the shores of California, when Hylla had taken Reyna’s face in her hands and kissed the top of her head before they had parted ways, not to see each other for four years. She hadn’t been wrong. 

  
  


//

  
  


She wasn’t sure when she fell asleep, but she had. On the sofa itself, stretched out uncomfortably, but warmly, because Hylla had draped a blanket over her and slipped a pillow under her head. A few minutes, a couple of hours. Reyna blinked sleep out of her eyes as her brain took a minute to catch up, to realise where she was.

Right. Her sister’s apartment. In  _ Seattle _ . Some crying. Reyna pushed herself up and yawned, throwing off the blanket. The dim light from the street lamps was reflecting the splashing puddles that cars skid through. Her hair was surprisingly unknotted, unentangled. That was new. Reyna’s hair didn’t make it through naps unscathed.

Oh.  _ Right _ . Hylla.

Reyna went over to the mirror by the door to study her plait. It had been years since someone other than herself had braided her hair. Hylla’s braiding was professional, immaculate, beautiful. It looked effortless, despite the hours she had poured into mastering it, braiding and re-braiding Reyna’s hair long hours into the night at Circe’s island, a comfort for them both, away from home and away from their father. The nights the blood of Reyna’s hands seemed too dark, the ghost of her father too looking, she’d curl up by Hylla’s side, and Hylla would wake up and they would braid hair. 

A scratching sound, nails—no,  _ claws— _ on wood made her jump up. Hylla sighed, but fondly, promptly leaving whatever she was doing silently at the kitchen table to hurry over to the refrigerator. She held up a plate with a fish on it.

“What?” Reyna asked.

“It’s Ve,” Hylla said. “It’s this cat. Tabby. Annoying. Adorable. I usually keep a fish or some milk or even a couple of cat treats for it. It’s like clockwork.”

“Holy Jupiter, you’ve  _ really _ leant into this life of domesticity haven’t you?” Reyna snorted as Hylla started jangling open the locks. “Cactus, cats, trashy thriller novels… the whole works.”

“Aren’t your sweet little metal dogs ripping apart my bedroom as we speak?”

“They behave well. Usually,” Reyna added. “Also,  _ metal _ .  _ Dogs _ . That’s actually hardcore.”

“I run a very dangerous, very capable warrior squad in my weekends, Reyna. I’m hardcore, don’t you worry.” Hylla opened the door to greet her cat, tabby, annoying, adorable. Reyna squeezed by to take a look at it.

“You named it after your pet leopard?”

“Namesake. Yeah.”

“That’s a huge honour. And he’s so tiny.”

“He deserves it.”

Reyna leant down to pet his head. The cat purred. “It kind of looks like that cat that used to hang out by our home. Back...there.”

“Kind of,” Hylla said. She bit her lip but didn’t say anything else. She watched the cat lick himself clean; he reminded Reyna of Aristophanes and his butt licking habits. Oh,  _ he _ had been a cat. Just when Reyna thought she had said something wrong, brought up something that she shouldn’t have, Hylla spoke up.

“I sold the house. Again.”

“Huh?”

“The house in San Juan.” 

Reyna stared up at her. “I thought you were—you said you made the hearth—“

“Yeah, I know,” Hylla said. “I thought I could renovate it. Make it a place I would like to live, at last, under different circumstances, free from—our father. Restart my life. Make happy memories in that place. A safe house for my Amazons. But…” she bit her lip. “When what happened with Orion...happened, it got buried under new rubble. I didn’t want to lift it on my own, and I realised I didn’t have to. I could have a new start.”

When Reyna didn’t answer, Hylla turned. “I’m sorry. I know I didn’t ask—“

“I never liked the house much,” Reyna said. 

“Me neither,” Hylla said. “I realised it pretty late. But I don’t. Not without you in there. Not with the memory of our father, and not with the memory of Orion. There’s not much to miss.” She shrugged. “I guess I mistook missing  _ you _ for missing San Juan.”

Her sister looked so sad. Reyna swallowed. “I don’t know. I miss breaking into Barrachina’s kitchen.”

“Oh,  _ mofongo _ on Sundays.” Hylla cracked a smile. “Okay. I’ll give you that.”

“I miss naming the cats down the Calle San Jose,” Reyna said, warming up. “The game of giving them stories.” 

It was like a released dam—oh, she remembered the smell of the periwinkles that their neighbour grew, tended carefully through the seasons. The croaks of the frogs in the rain damp grass. The taste of ice cream on those rare times Hylla had snuck her out of the house to visit the parlour down the street. The intensity of the summer sun, warm and beating on sweaty backs. 

Hylla laughed. “I feel kind of like those cats, sometimes. Like someone’s up there giving me weird stories and new names to go along with it. Twice-Kill Hylla. Fights a couple of pirates on the odd days. Grows a couple of succulents on the even.”

“Runs away to Seattle on the weekends,” Reyna said, earning a laugh from Hylla.

Remembering wasn’t the same as missing. They were bedfellows, though, tangled up so intimately, pressed so close to each other that Reyna could hardly bear to awaken one for fear of waking the other. It was why she had left them alone for so long. But they had left some space for her to crawl under the sheets, and kept it warm, and Reyna was so tired.

She wondered about her bed in the Praetor Villa. 

“I haven’t tried  _ mofongo  _ here,” Hylla said, leaning against the doorframe. “But the chowder is amazing. I’ll take you out tomorrow. Sight-seeing, dinner, the whole thing.”

“Monster killing?”

The rain had yet to let up. Reyna stared at the rain drops on the window as they raced each other to evaporation, at the trees swaying to the wind outside, the pedestrians hurrying with their raincoats and umbrellas. 

Hylla sighed. “I mean, that’s inevitable isn’t it? Life of a demigod, We’ll have to make some space in the schedule, but otherwise, we’ll be good.”

It all looked so mundane, just another city. If she wanted to, she could imagine it being New Rome, and down the road there would be another cafe selling hot chocolate the way she liked it, and maybe it wouldn’t be the same, but she could have it with her sister and it would still be good.

And. And better than it all. She had the time now, didn’t she?

Good was better than fine. It was a different promise, but it was still Hylla giving it.

“Alright,” Reyna agreed. “I’m holding you to it.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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